Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Feedback for the mainline campaign The Hammer of Thursagan.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

User avatar
tr0ll
Posts: 551
Joined: June 11th, 2006, 8:13 pm
Location: canada

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by tr0ll »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Medium, 1.9.6

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
4. i needed a good mix of low and high level units to finish, and had to be careful not to leave units exposed, but it was pretty easy going.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
10. Which was the hut at the top of the pass wasnt clear to me, so i grabbed them all and maybe wasted some time.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Echo previous guy's comments about motivation for random wolves and ogres and trolls not attacking each other. Gryphons always live at top of mountains and look for food so thats cool by me. Maybe the gryphon could have a more nesty castle, if there is such a terrain.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Leveling my noob units safely.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
6. Would be less if longer time limit and no impending snow and mage dialogue.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
It would be nice if killing the gryphon yielded a bonus few eggs to train as gryphon riders. Not new since it was done in another campaign (HttT?) but It isnt often you get to the top of a mountain range in any of the campaigns. Alternatively, and perhaps more challenging, if only ogres and wolves and trolls are killed but no gryphons are attacked maybe the dwarf riding the gryphon could be rewarded by the matron with said bonus.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No

(9)
I don't know if this is a bug or intentional. When you start the scenario from a Turn 1 save, you don't see the destination marker through the fog.
WanderingHero
Posts: 169
Joined: May 30th, 2011, 2:03 pm
Location: Uk, London

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by WanderingHero »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on? Normal
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) 6 for a rating of beating it without losing anyone, since the ai ganks your troops.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives? Clear, although the market vanishes randomly. Still not hard to follow the road
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario? So so
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario? unit ganking my guys, large amount of spawns
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10) 6 Kind of annoying but not bad
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun? Not sure. But one thing that did irk me, the house with the mage DID NOT GLOW and it was not clear where it was (top of the pass? define top?)
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario? Losing a level 3/soon to be level 3 unit to ganking
podbelski
Posts: 151
Joined: June 7th, 2011, 8:35 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by podbelski »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
1.9.6, Hard, 80gp, no reloads

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
- less than 5 to escort the main guy.
- roughly 5 to flag as many villages as possible to earn some gold for the next scenario.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
fine

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
nice

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
earning gold for the next scenario

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
probably 6

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
guess it's good as is

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
restarted once after I was short 1 turn due to unnecessary assaults, another one to accumulate more gold.
Attachments
THoT-High_Pass_replay.gz
FLAGGING VILLAGES
(20.45 KiB) Downloaded 967 times
THoT-High_Pass_replay.gz
STRAIGHTFORWARD RUN
(18.99 KiB) Downloaded 824 times
User avatar
Ninjuri
Posts: 167
Joined: April 28th, 2012, 2:59 am
Location: California

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by Ninjuri »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Normal 1.10.2
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5 . It probably would have been harder if i didn't own all the previous levels so good, giving me an A-team of escorts. All my leaders were completely leveled, i had a leveled gryphon for a great sight range (i think this level is probably his main purpose, right?) and a nice mixed team of lv 2 and 3 of all 4 unit types. I moved slowly, shielding any injured units and taking the leader's healing for good use, ended up almost losing a pathfinder with like 1hp, but i barely managed to completely surround him on all sides with lv 2 guardsmen and fighters. The gryphons did not get their lunch today! I reached the signpost with 3 turns to spare, so i just stood next to it and decided to see if i could assault the gryphon base with my army, which i did, while keeping the leader 1 space away from the sign post so there'd be no risk. I ended up taking it out with 1 turn to spare, it was awesome.
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
100%
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I'm not sure if this is a problem, but since i had a large sight range with the gyphon, i blatantly saw the enemy units spawn out of nowhere. Also the i don't get the part about a hut i was supposed to be finding? I did get the mage if that's what i was supposed to be looking for though.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Trying not to lose a single unit, which i didn't.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8. If anything, it made me feel like a badass for using so many different elements to my advantage.
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
That little bit about the hut could be clearer.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No
Fate is against me.
Giraffemonster
Posts: 37
Joined: January 7th, 2011, 9:41 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by Giraffemonster »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Steelclad (Normal), 1.10.3

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
5. It's pretty easy, but I sort of had to take some more risks to level some Guardsmen which I neglected leveling.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Crystal

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
There isn't much dialogue at all. Then again, there isn't much to be said in the first place.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Leveling guardsmen in 18 turns.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
4. Just another breather/balancing scenario.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Perhaps add in some more combat by raising the turns and the number of enemies. The gryphons were pretty brutal, but there were only two of them, so more gryphons would be cool.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Nope.

(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
N/A
roidanton
Posts: 90
Joined: September 7th, 2012, 10:41 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by roidanton »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
I played this on the iPad about two weeks ago and just tried again with the latest version on Windows. Both times with the hardest difficulty level.
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Well, I had huge problems with this when I played it on the iPad.

Now, it really was a piece of cake: 1/10.
Maybe that's due to my much stronger crew: I only had minimum gold, but recalled 1 quick strong Lord, 1 quick resilient Lord and 1 quick strong Dragonguard, that's all I could get for my gold. No Gryphon Master. Since I already tried this scenario many times on the iPad, I already knew the path, so with only 3 units to choose from, high HP and attack was much more important for me.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
I didn't actually read it this time because I already played this so many times.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Still worried that I may not have enough gold for "Mages and Drakes" (only 83).
Rubric
Posts: 13
Joined: December 31st, 2012, 4:31 am

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by Rubric »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Medium
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
Pretty easy.
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Good -- the wizard freezing was amusing. The only problem, as others have said, was that the hut wasn't "glowing", and I didn't know what he meant by "the top of the pass".
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
On the 2nd or 3rd turn, my Gryphon got ambushed by wolves and other gryphons and was killed. I restarted in order to protect him better.
devavrata
Posts: 119
Joined: August 30th, 2012, 8:59 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by devavrata »

Content Feedback wrote:High Pass is the 6th scenario of The Hammer of Thursagan.

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
Battle for Wesnoth 1.8.3, Easy/Medium/Hard
Content Feedback wrote:(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
8 - Very tight on time
Content Feedback wrote:(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear
Content Feedback wrote:(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
Clear. Also, let's speak of the music, which is never spoken of. BfW has got excellent music, but this scenario surprised me with a new, different music - something epic, with some celtic touch. Wonderful.
Content Feedback wrote:(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Time. And then enemies that teleport all around you. Got to forget about the usual seizing villages procedure, because wolves appear out of the blue and take them back - but it's so hard to forget about your usual strategy! As an experienced player my modus operandi is to debug my strategy all the time until it seems perfect not only for victory but also for aesthetic. So, it has come down to this: take and hold all the villages you can, kill the enemies, and last kill their leader - but only after having taken all the villages. Of course, there are the "hide and seek" scenarios that require a different strategy. And then the "get to your destination" scenarios... but I was used to win those scenarios taking the villages as well (and even killing all the enemies). This tight-timed scenario forces you to change, which might be a good thing, but in some other level looks wrong.
Content Feedback wrote:(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
8
Content Feedback wrote:(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
Some ice?
Content Feedback wrote:(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
No
Content Feedback wrote:(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?
-
SBak
Posts: 78
Joined: October 8th, 2011, 1:36 am

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by SBak »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?

Easy and Medium 1.8.5 and 1.10.5

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

Sometimes it's a 6 other times it's 9.

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

The objectives are clear enough I suppose.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?


it's clear enough - they're on a journey going through a high mountain pass in winter.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?


Where was this glowing village? I just saw villages. This is similar to that other scenario in Sceptre of Fire in many ways where you have to find Thursagan but it's not a scenario objective and unlike that scenario in the SoF it doesn't work so well here in High Pass.

Sure it works in SoF even though you have to search the entire map for a village because you have two Gryphons to help you, the terrain is wide open and the enemies appear at least one move away from you. Besides SoF is pitched at expert level so you can expect some greater degree of handicap or disadvantage to work with.

But in High Pass you have to search numerous villages through mountainous, forested terrain where the enemies can suddenly appear right on top of you. You also only have one Gryphon Rider without the ability to recruit any more. All it takes is for a Gryphon and Ogre to appear and your Gryphon Rider is gone.

Well actually you don't, because Rathein the Arch Mage is usually in the same village by the road about half way across. You wouldn't know this unless you've read the walkthrough or played the scenario a few times and discovered it for yourself.

This teleporting of enemy units is another issue I have with this scenario. When I started out on Easy I would either waste half a dozen turns just getting out of my keep or be defeated because immediately as you've recruited often you find either a lvl2 Troll or Ogre (sometimes 2) right on top of your keep.

I wised up and now will only come into the scenario with lvl2 units but (especially on Easy) chances are that some players are still fielding lvl1 units. There was a point when I even went into debug and created lvl2 units to get into the scenario but you know when you have to do this there's not much point in playing in the game, is there?

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

1 - this is one of the worst scenarios in any Wesnoth campaign.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

This scenario needs a complete revamp/overhaul/rethink.

I would consider adding the finding of the Mage Rathein as a scenario objective together with getting through the pass. You could split the mountains in half with a river with an island on which the Mage lives you could have a cave of Ogres, another of Trolls, maybe a few Nagas in the river and if you really want even through in a Yeti or two wandering around attacking everyone.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

The main ones:

1. Losing units through searching for villages for the Mage.
2. Not killing two Ogres at the start of the scenario and then being attacked by enemies in a queue such as a Troll, Gryphon and Wolves.
3. Losing the Gryphon Rider.

(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?

N/A
User avatar
Chief_Chasso
Posts: 132
Joined: December 15th, 2012, 2:36 am

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by Chief_Chasso »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?: Easy, 1.11.15
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10): 2
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?: Very clear.
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?: Very clear.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?: Nothing really. This was a fairly simple scenario.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10): 3
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?: Maybe reduce the turn limit to create a sense of urgency.
(9) If you know a bit of the Wesnoth Markup Language - do you think that the WML of this scenario is clear and well commented? If not which part would you like to be documented better?: I didn't check.
SP Campaign: Rally For Roanic
Violet-n-red
Posts: 49
Joined: June 27th, 2015, 2:38 pm

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by Violet-n-red »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
normal, 1.12.2, enough gold to recall two waves of veterans.
(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
10
(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
clear enough.
(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
pretty good.
(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
not getting surrounded, rescuing lamost dead veterans and trying to maneuver through mountains and enemies to cover the results of bad hits.
(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
9
(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
no idea, but here's the thing: i succeeded only when there were mostly trolls walking on the road. other times, wolves were blocking most of my movement while few trolls and ogres were destroying my army.
(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
getting blocked by SWARMS of wolfes. not packs, swarms. one time where there were only two or three packs, i managed to compelte the level with all veterans alive, some levelled and one turn left.

guide, for some reason, recommended to recall gryphon (had that one at 2lvl). worst idea ever. no reason to scout because the way i have to move in is obvious and it's not like it is possible to avoid enemies or prepare for them. plus, it gets eaten really fast compared to levelled dwarvish guards standing on the mountains.

by the way, this scenario is the thing i was looking for in my thread: http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=42767

ohohoh, also!! whoever created a dwarvish dragonguard should get a medal. i thought red mages had the most satisfyingly feeling attacks, then i saw and heard THIS.
User avatar
Inky
Forum Moderator
Posts: 527
Joined: September 22nd, 2014, 1:02 am
Location: USA

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by Inky »

(1) Level and version? Hard (Lord), 1.12.4, 205 starting gold
(2) Difficult? (1-10) 3, very easy
(3) Objectives? Clear.
(4) Dialog? Fine.
(5) Challenges? Getting the most XP out of it, I guess.
(6) Fun? (1-10) 4
(7) Changes? It's weird to see units spawning out of nowhere. Maybe make them preplaced.
(8) Restarts? None.

Finished turn 11/12.
Attachments
THoT-High_Pass_replay.gz
(27.52 KiB) Downloaded 714 times
User avatar
shadow12
Posts: 98
Joined: November 6th, 2015, 1:06 am

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by shadow12 »

(1) What difficulty level and version of Wesnoth have you played the scenario on? Medium. Wesnoth 1.10.5, iOS iPad 1.0.4 (replay uploads and downloads not available as of yet)

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10) 5 (thankfully I had lvl 3 dwarves to work with)

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Very clear, we were shown exactly where the signpost was located.

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario? Very good!

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
Knowing where to position my units on turn 1, because they were hit by wolves before getting out of the keep.
Only 80 starting gold since I spent too long on the previous scenario leveling my units. So could recall only 4 units. But it was enough to do the job.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10) 8. I enjoyed it! Challenging to fight trolls, gryphons and wolves that were rushing at us out of fog!

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun? Can't think of any. Good as is!

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
Restarted once becauce of wrong unit positioning on turn 1. The first time I recalled a gryphon and moved Angarthing out onto the path - bad idea. The wolves teleported and wounded them both badly. The next time I recalled all lvl 3 dwarves and moved Angarthing to the south of the castle to protect her on turn 1. Recalled 2 Dwarvish Lords and 2 Dwarvish Explorers which could survive attacks. In this scenario, leveled Aiglondur to a Dwarvish Lord and Angarthing to Dwarvish Analyst. A gryphon would have been good for getting village points, but I decided not to. I was worried the other gryphons would have killed it. i felt high level dwarves a better choice.

My strategy was to stay together and move east along the path, healing in villages as we went. Since I had only 6 units total, felt it was too risky moving to outer villages for points or trying to kill leaders. I just wanted them all to get out ok. The Arch Mage half way down the path was a nice surprise. (Where was the twinkling/glowing light indicating where to go to find him? I looked but couldn't see it, maybe it was too foggy).
Sometimes life unexpectedly throws a Troll or a nasty Queen Naga in your path.
Linthar
Posts: 77
Joined: September 14th, 2006, 12:16 am

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by Linthar »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?
1.13.13 Hard

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)
6

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?
Clear

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?
The dialog was clear and good for the most part. But the dialog of there being something in the "That hut near the top of the pass" was incredibly misleading. When I got the dialog I assumed top must have meant near the north end of the map, not right in the middle. I just got luckily that I grabbed that village anyways as the dialog in no way seemed to indicate that this was the hut it was talking about.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?
The time limit. 12 turns on hard is a very tight limit. I got to the signpost on turn 11, and I'm not sure how I could have gotten there much faster. Also you need a much bigger army then I first expected to fight through everything quickly enough not to get bogged down. And bogging you down is the only threat they pose, the enemies for the most part don't do enough damage to threaten my units, they are just giant amounts of hp to grind down.

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)
2. This doesn't feel like a fair challenge. The fog of war serves almost no point other then allowing gryphons to come in to attack from nowhere, but makes it almost impossible to see if you are on pace to reach the end in time. Enemies appear out of thin air, possibly at points you think are clear, with no warning. There were multiple points where I had to adjust my strategy because suddenly I had a troll or ogre in the middle of my army, and there aren't even any animation or anything to indicate they were appearing, I just suddenly have a few enemies where there were previously none.

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?
This scenario needs a redesign. The fog of war and enemies spawning from thin air don't actually add much to the difficulty they just make it impossible to come up with a good plan in advance. The scenario would work far better with no fog of war, and instead of randomly spawning trolls, ogres and wolves a actually troll leader to the south. Then you could actually assess the strength of the enemy before choosing what units to recall/recruit and come up with an actual plan to hold of the enemies long enough to reach the end instead of it being literally impossible to predict where the enemies are going to be coming from.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?
I had to restart twice due to under recruiting because the scenario doesn't give me any of the necessary information to plan properly in advance.
LordWolfDan
Posts: 216
Joined: September 30th, 2018, 7:31 am

Re: Scenario Review: THoT 6 - High Pass

Post by LordWolfDan »

(1) What difficulty levels have you played the scenario on?

- 1.14.5, Easy

(2) How difficult did you find the scenario? (1-10)

- 5

(3) How clear did you find the scenario objectives?

- Clear, move to the other side of the map

(4) How clear and interesting did you find the dialog and storyline of the scenario?

- It's good. The foreboding of dwarves that they're facing something grim is very well done here. Plus it's funny how the arch mage Ratheln has fire attack, yet is freezing in the mountains.

(5) What were your major challenges in meeting the objectives of the scenario?

- Dealing with randomly spawning units

(6) How fun do you think the scenario is? (1-10)

- 6

(7) What, if any, are changes you would have made to the scenario to make it more fun?

- Instead of randomly spawning monsters, there should a level 3 troll leader. Killing him would be clearly optional, but would be good for harvesting XP.

(8) Was there any event that caused you to lose the game and forced you to reload or restart the scenario?

- None
Post Reply